Exploring Racism and Health: An Intensive Interactive Session for Medical Students

Date of Review: February, 2019

This resource from MedEdPORTAL, published in 2018, was co-created by faculty and medical students to introduce first-year medical students to race and racism, discuss racism in medicine, and provide tools for students to use when encountering racism in clinical practice (CHARGE2 and INTERRUPT frameworks). Students complete pre-work (1 brief article, 1 TedMED talk) before attending a 1-hour didactic session that is followed by a 2-hour, case-based small group discussion. The authors specifically encourage case facilitation by senior students to create a trusting learning environment where students can debate without concern for judgement; cases were based on senior students’ personal experiences. This session is one of several situated within a longitudinal course titled ‘Health Equity and Social Justice’ that runs throughout all years of medical school. Learners demonstrated improved knowledge as measured on a post-test and self-reported improvements in knowledge and skill. The resource includes the didactic slides, a facilitator guide with detailed notes related to each case, student materials, and a brief quiz; the authors also include a number of references that they used to develop their curriculum that may help those hoping to create similar curricula. While the authors intend this course for first year medical students, the materials could be adapted for later learners or other health professional students. — Brigid Dolan, MD, NCEAS

Corresponding Author’s Email:

mld229@njms.rutgers.edu

Institution:

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Where Was the Curriculum Implemented?

Newark, NJ

Source of the Curriculum/Resource:

MedEdPORTAL

Outcomes that Have Been Reported for the Curriculum:

Learner Satisfaction or reaction

Self-reported learner knowledge

Self-reported learner behavior in a real patient setting

Outcome and Study Design:

Post only

Level of Learner Assessment:

Appreciation of content/attitude assessment (self-reflection, blogging with rubric)

Knowledge Acquisition (MCQ, IRAT, GRAT)